European shares plummeted following the World Trade Centre plane crashes.

By mid-afternoon, the FTSE 100 Index was off 219.6 points at 4,814.6, while all the European markets plunged.

The New York Stock Exchange was evacuated and trading was cancelled, possibly for the entire day.

The World Trade Centre and

nearby World Financial Centre were also evacuated. Both are home to many brokerages and investment firms.

Jeremy Batstone at NatWest Stockbrokers said: "The London market was up around 60 to 70 points before - now look at it."

Tom Hougaard, trader at Financial Spreads, the financial bookmaker, said: "It's an absolute disaster. I'm telling you it is really bad. It's a really precipitous drop. When the US opens it will dive."

Mike Lenhoff at broker Gerrard said: "Its a disaster. Its throws the whole market background into chaos. The Pentagon has been bombed and nobody really knows the American policy response, which I think is going to be pretty severe, once they feel confident about who is responsible.

"I don't think one can talk sensibly about market behaviour. Just as we're talking, the UK market fell by 20-30 points - these are pretty fast market conditions.

"Banks, insurers will fall the most - anything that's exposed. Oil stocks will do well and oil prices are rising. The oil price is now almost 30 dollars a barrel compared with 27.50 dollars earlier this morning."

David Page, economist at City stockbroker Investec, said: "The futures index in the US has been trading sporadically, the Dow futures index was down 330 after being up 60 so it's lost 400 points because of this.

"Consumer sentiment has taken a huge knock here as people want to get out of equities and into safe stocks and bonds."

In London, shares in airlines, banks and insurers dived.

British Airways, BAA, Ryanair, and EasyJet all fell heavily, while among the banks Lloyds TSB, Barclays, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland dived.

Insurers including Prudential, Royal & Sun Alliance and CGNU slumped.

Lloyds of London, the insurance market said it would not comment on the potential cost of insurance of buildings damaged.

Credit Suisse First Boston, which has an office in the World Trade Centre, said all its staff were safely evacuated.

A spokeswoman said it was not yet known if any Britons were among them.

Wall Street came to halt after the suicide jetliner attacks on World Trade Centre today.

The New York Stock Exchange was evacuated and trading was cancelled, possibly for the entire day.

The World Trade Centre and

nearby World Financial Centre were also evacuated. Both are home to many brokerages and investment firms.

It was also difficult to make phone calls to the central business district and throughout the greater Manhattan area.

Business and trading in other parts of the country were also affected.